Nov. 5, 2014 By Father Bryan D. Stitt Last week I tried the sport of curling for the first time. I was with a couple dozen young Catholic Scouts from across the diocese during the annual Catholic Scouting retreat, and this was our evening activity. It was great fun. Curling is not as complicated as its equally icy cousin, hockey. No pads, no helmets, not checking, no penalty boxes. Just two teams sliding rocks at a target in turn with a lot of sweeping and even more yelling. Simple, right? That’s what I thought until my team of three 30-something men got beat handily by a team of young teenaged girls. How’d it happen? Well, they played this simple game at a higher level. As Vocations Director, I try to help young people do something similar with their lives: live more simply and on a higher level. In a world of abundant complications: disease and war, financial instability and broken-relationships, addictions, compulsions, and sin, the call of the Lord stands in striking simplicity: “Follow Me.” We heard it recently at Mass, didn’t we? The whole of the law and prophets depend on this: Love of God and Love of Neighbor. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. And that’s what He calls us all to. Since I was asked to write on my beloved vocation to the priesthood, I’d like to point out how the priest’s life stands out in its simplicity. Celibacy, obedience, and prayer: these are the three promises that every priest made on his ordination day. They stand in stark contrast to a world of very complicated sexual confusion, the sacredness of the personal will, and lives of pragmatism. Can we look at the three priestly promises? Prayer first. Each and every Christian, by right of his or her baptism has the responsibility to converse with the Lord. But priests have solemnly promised to pray for the Church and the world each day. Of course there is the celebration of Holy Mass (normally and ideally celebrated once every day), but also the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours (in which we step away five times a day to pray), confession, rosary, and personal meditation. I heard a great example of this last point recently. Bishop Daniel Thomas, the new bishop of Toledo, told the story of when he was a seminarian in Philadelphia. While he was a senior in college-seminary, Pope John Paul II came to visit the City of Brotherly Love. Cardinal Krol had hosted the Pope at his residence, and afterwards related this story to the seminarians. After bidding his host a good night, Pope John Paul retired to his room. But the Cardinal sure didn’t go to sleep. (Can you imagine doing so with the Vicar of Christ on Earth in your house?!?) Around 10:30 pm Cardinal Krol decided he would check on the pontiff to see if his light was on. It was, and the door was ajar. But no Pope. “Maybe he needed a midnight snack,” thought Cardinal Krol. So he went to the kitchen, but no Pope. “He’s a great scholar, so maybe he’s reading in the library.” He went to the library, but no Pope. Then he went to the chapel. The light was on, and the door was open just a crack. Through the door Cardinal Krol could see Pope Saint John Paul II prostrate on the ground before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We are all called to the simple reality of daily prayer. Priests are to follow the example of John Paul who followed the example of Christ himself. We are to pour out ourselves in prayer. Second is obedience. Obedience is often regarded as the hardest of the promises that a priest makes. Again, all Christians must be obedient, but priests are called to do so on a whole different level. For example, we all know the reality of priests having to move to different assignments. Sometimes people see this as a cause of frustration. “Why did the Bishop do this to us?!?” parishioners seem to say. But with eyes of faith, invariably we see how the Holy Spirit was working in and through the move. This past May I heard one of our recently transferred priests express this to Bishop LaValley. To paraphrase him: “I don’t know what happened in [the personnel meeting], and I’m not asking to. You see the big picture in a way that I cannot. But what I want you to know is that I trust you, and trust that the Holy Spirit is at work.” Finally we all know that the priest promises celibacy. Again, all Catholics are to be chaste and pure—in whatever vocation they have been called to. There is absolutely nothing impure about the free, total, faithful, and fruitful love between a husband and wife. But a priest foregoes marriage for the sake of the kingdom. What does that mean? It means that celibacy is not just about the simple practicality—although this is something that is made very evident to me whenever I’m surrounded by all my siblings, cousins, and all their children at our chaotic family reunions. (My life sure is a lot simpler than theirs!) Instead celibacy is about living the purity and chastity on a higher level. Priests are to give the world a reminder by their very lives that there is a love “out there” even greater than the beautiful love between a husband and a wife—that is our God who is love. Our world so desperately needs the priests’ heroic witness of chastity today. Those teen-aged Scouts showed me that curling is a simpler game that can be played on a higher level. Please God, I was able to show them in some small way a simpler life that can be lived on a higher level.
Father Bryan Stitt, center, tried his hand at curling during the recent Catholic scouting retreat. His team was handily beaten by a group of young teenaged girls because, he said, they “played this simple game at a higher level.” As diocesan director of vocations, he is encouraging young people to live more simply and on a higher level.
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